south oakland ducks

Gameday 22: Ducks at Express

2018 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, pittsburgh NABA

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (12-9)

at

Carrick Express (8-8)

8pm

Volunteer Field

South Oakland looks to avenge an early season loss to the Express tonight in Carrick, and continue on its recent hot streak. The Ducks have won three straight and four of the last five. Carrick has fallen off a bit after a hot start and has dealt with unfortunate scheduling/permit issues over the last month or so. They’ve only played 16 games with seven days left in the regular season.

A Ducks win will set up a showdown with the Bandidos on Tuesday that could possibly be for the third seed and a first round bye. The Ducks control their own destiny thanks to tie-breakers over the Oilers, Eagles, D2, Bauerstown, and a win over the Bandidos early in the season. Bauerstown losing one of its last two games would also help.

But none of that matters without a win tonight. These late season games are exciting, we’ve done a good job to get some wins over good teams and we will need another one against Carrick.

Bad News for the Express

 

Ducks Sweep BIG OIL, Keep Fist Round Bye Hopes Alive

2018 South Oakland Ducks

Cody Quinn and Randy Patton lead South Oakland to back to back wins over the Hebrew Oilers. Quinn pitched a gem on Tuesday in East Liberty, going six innings and allowing one run. He worked out of trouble early, stranding the bases loaded, and striking out the side in the second. Patton pitched a scoreless seventh inning, in the Ducks 6-1 win. Tom Pulice hit a bases loaded double to give the Ducks some breathing room, and added an RBI single in the seventh.

Wednesday night in Spring Hill, Patton threw a complete game against his former team and the Ducks pulled away with a four run sixth inning to break a 4-4 tie. DJ Dover drew a bases loaded walk, and Paul Cucco hit a bases clearing triple. South Oakland went on to win 8-4.

Both games were close until the late innings.

South Oakland is now .5 games out of third for the final first round bye, and one back in the win column of the first place Eagles.

It’s going to be exciting down the stretch.

South Oakland’s next game is Saturday night at 8pm vs. Carrick at Volunteer Field. Hopefully the permit situation is worked out.

Ducks Win. South Oakland 8, South Hills 5

2018 South Oakland Ducks

The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side score seven runs in the first four innings, and coasted to an 8-5 win Thursday night in Munhall.

Randy Patton pitched six strong innings for the win, and Tom Pulice went 3-for-3 with 2 doubles, a walk and 3 RBI.

The Devils scored four unearned runs in the fifth to make things interesting after the Ducks had made defensive substitutions to get everyone playing time.

The Devils appear to have an almost entirely different roster from the first time the teams met.

Lonnie Petril went 0-0 with 2BB and 2 Runs

Ben Sorosky laid down a perfect sac bunt that lead to two runs.

The Ducks next game is 6pm Saturday at Sheraden.

Ducks Win. South Oakland 12, D2 0 (5 inn.)

2018 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, Recap, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Randy Patton (W, 4-3) allowed just two base runners, and faced one batter over the minimum and all ten Ducks starters reached base safely, in a lopsided 12-0 victory over D2 in Munhall last night.

South Oakland (7-6) scored 3 in the first on an RBI double by Pulice and a basses loaded 2-out, 2-run single by Casale. The Ducks scored seven runs in the second as D2’s starter had trouble finding the zone. South Oakland scored two more in the fourth  Casale hit a 2-run triple to center.

D2 (8-3) didn’t have a base runner until their ten hitter was hit by a pitch in the fourth, and their eleven hitter singled. The runner on second was then doubled off on a fly out to center.

South Oakland’s next game is 6pm Thursday at Herschel Park vs D2

 

Some stats:

Patton: W, 5IP, 1H, 1HBP, 5K

Casale: 2-2, BB, SB, 3B, 4RBI, R

Pulice: 1-2, 2B, BB, RBI, R

Dover 1-2, SB, HBP, 2RBI, R

Gwin 2-2, HBP, SB, RBI, 2R

Graff: 0-1, 2BB, SB, 2R

Gameday 13: Ducks vs Pittsburgh D2

2018 South Oakland Ducks

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (6-6)

vs

Pittsburgh D2 (8-2)

8pm

West Field

South Oakland finds itself hanging around the middle of the pack despite only averaging around 4.3 runs a game, with a team batting average .90 points down from last year (.280 compared to .370). The Ducks have scored 2.4 fewer runs per game this season than last with pretty much the same lineup. I’m not sure of the reason for this. Maybe we all got old at the same time, maybe its the new field, maybe the pitching is better. Maybe it’s just bad luck and we’re due to regress (progress?) to the norm, collectively.

If the Ducks are going to get finish in the top 3 and get a bye, the offense will have to get right this week, as we face D2 twice, and Bauerstown on Saturday.

South Oakland is 1.5 games behind the third place Oilers, and 3 games out of first with 12 games left. The Ducks have won two straight over good teams, after a bad loss to the Warriors followed by 2 rainouts.

We usually do well against teams that throw hard, and I think D2 has a bunch of hard throwing young guys, so maybe we will break out today. Maybe we need a ringer.

Bad News for D2

Ducks Win. South Oakland 6, South Side 3

2018 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, Recap, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (6-6) got back to .500 on the season against a tough South Side Eagles (4-5) team, winning by a score of 6-3 in Spring Hill last night.

The Ducks lead 2-1 going into the bottom of the fifth. Dover doubled to start the inning, advanced to third on a wild pitch and Toumisto drove him in with a groundout to the right side. Five batters later, Tony Casale singled with the bases loaded, followed by Ben Sorosky’s clutch pinch-hit single to right to cap off the four-run inning.

The Eagles scored two in the top of the seventh, but the rally fell short.

Randy Patton (W, 3-3) pitched six strong innings, allowing only 2 hits and 3 walks along with 2 Ks. Andy Nichols recorded the save (2).

South Oakland’s next game is Saturday at 2pm vs. 1st place Sheraden Jays.

  • We had the ump with the small strike zone, and there were a few questionable calls
  • I think the Eagles were short guys?
  • This is the first season sweep of the Eagles since 2010
  • If we beat the Jays Saturday, we will sweep all other bird teams
  • We jumped from 9th to a 5th place with the win

 

 

 

I forget what I was supposed to title this blog post: Ducks Win. South Oakland 4, Cranberry 2

Ducks win, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (5-6) came back from a two-run deficit to defeat the Crusaders (4-4) by a score of 4-2 in Munhall last night. Starter Mike Longman (W, 1-0) scattered seven hits over five innings, and Andy Nichols pitched two scoreless innings for the save.

Cranberry scored two runs on a triple, a single and two errors to take a 2-0 lead in the fourth. The Ducks cut the lead in half after a triple by Dover and a sac fly by Lombardi.

South Oakland added two runs in the fifth on singles by Gwin, Zuzak and Maldonado.

Dover stole third and scored on throwing error in the sixth to give the Ducks some breathing room.

South Oakland plays next on Sunday night, 8:30pm at John Herb Field vs. West View

 

Ducks Win. South Oakland 7, Bauerstown 4

2018 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, pittsburgh NABA, Recap, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland won its third straight game, defeating the Bauerstown Grizzlies (1-4) by a score of 7-3 in Munhall Wednesday night.

South Oakland lead 3-1 going into the bottom of the fourth when Mike Brandt doubled to the gap and later scored on a ground out by Maldonado.

The Ducks added another run in the fifth on Pulice’s team leading 8th RBI on a single to right to make the score 5-1.

Bauerstown clawed back into the game with a three-run sixth, but the Ducks answered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning on singles by J. Zuzak, Petril, Maldonado and Gwin.

Randy Patton (W, 2-2) pitched five strong innings, and Chris Heisler finished out the game with a two inning save. The duo scattered nine hits on the night.

Mark Lombardi went 3-3 with 2 Runs scored.

Ben Gwin recorded the 300th hit of his Ducks career, an RBI single to right in the sixth inning.

South Oakland turned a 1-5-6 double play after a botched bunt attempt in the second.

We were the beneficiaries of a couple close plays in the field. Our 7-10 hitters went a combined: 4-10, 2B, 2 BB, RE, 2 SB, 4R

The Ducks next play Tuesday night at Herschel Park vs. the Devils.

Quack.

 

Gameday 6: Ducks vs Grizzlies

2018 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (2-3)

vs

Bauerstown Grizzlies (1-3)

9pm

West Field

South Oakland looks to win its third straight game and get back to .500 after a slow start. Bauerstown looks to get back in the win column after two tough losses. These are two evenly matched teams. It should be a good game.

Here’s an old scorebook page:

Ducks vs Rakers? this is from like 2007. One of TC Jones’s first games as a Duck. My cousin Paul pitched for us. He was really good when he was sober. This must have been a night game.

Must be the Rakers. Note their #7 and 9 hitter. Barchie also pitched for the Ducks for a half season. He recorded 15 Ks in one game. I think that’s still a single game record.

We were just about to get really good. After TC came, he brought a bunch of Pitt Club players and we went from terrible to competitive. We started this year like 0-8 and wound up finishing like10-14 and narrowly missing the playoffs.

Bad News for the Grizzlies

Ducks Win. South Oakland 7, Jays 3

2018 South Oakland Ducks

The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (1-3) beat the Sheraden Jays (1-1) 7-3 in Munhall Wednesday night. Tony Casale hit a leadoff triple, and the Ducks scored five runs in the first inning, and the Jays never threatened the early lead.

 

Randy Patten threw five strong innings allowing 2 runs on five hits, with 5Ks, Mike Longman recorded the 2-inning save allowing one unearned run.

Tom Pulice threw out a guy at second by like ten feet.

Ben Gwin recorded 2, HBP, putting him in the team lead.

South Oakland added one in the fourth and one in the sixth.

I don’t know what it is about teams with non-player coaches, but it’s terrible to play against them. They typically have fans and random people in the dugout that run their mouths. Good for them, I guess. I can’t imagine playing in an adult league and having to deal with some twenty year old’s dad bitching at me. It’s bullshit. I can’t imagine what their game against West View was like.

South Oakland’s next game is Sunday, 12pm at Hershel Park vs the South Side Eagles.